It's easy to see the strong influence astrology once played in life. It's evident in the very names of the days of the week. There are seven heavenly bodies visible to the naked eye and each is associated with a diffeent day of the week. In some cases, the association is obvious in English, such as Sunday (the Sun's day), Monday (the Moon's Day) and Saturday (Saturn's Day). We can hear other planets' day names better in other languages, like the French Mardi (Tuesday) for Mars, Mercredi (Wednesday) for Mercury and Vendredi (Friday) for Venus. Germanic languages give us Wodens Day from Woden, the equivalent of Mercury, Thor's Day (Thursday) withThor synonymous with Jupiter, and Freitag, Freia's Day, for Friday, since Freia is like Venus.

Aside from our day names, a number of terms have celestial origins. For instance, disaster comes from the root words dis (= bad) and astra (= stars) and literally means bad stars. Disasters frequently occur when the planets are in disharmonious connections with one another. Or how about the notion that things happen in threes? It's quite possible this comes from the repetition of planetary positions due to a zig-zag process called Retrograde Motion. This is an optical illusion: as faster planets pass us or as we pass slower planets, the planets appears to move opposite their normal motion through the sky for a period of weeks or months. Over time, they traverse a certain slice of the sky three times, first forward, then backward, then forward again.

In days gone by, before taking any important actions, leaders would consult with an astrologer to see the indications of the planets and signs relevant to their goals. They looked at Mars before going to war, they examined Saturn and the Sun before a coronation, Venus before a marriage, etc. In fact, the word "consider" comes from Latin "con" (= with) and sider (= constellations). To give a matter due consideration meant to check it out astrologically. Wise people today still do that! For instance, if you're considering surgery, a business deal, a move, a job change, a major purchase, it can help to know what the current cosmic tides bode.

One of my specialties is "electional astrology." This has nothing to do with voting but rather means selecting a propitious time for a given activity. Some days are better suited to certain endeavors; other days are so stress-inducing we are better off avoidign them altogether. But speaking of elections, I do believe that candidates could give themselves an edge by launching their campaigns "under good stars." Next time you have a big decision, consider taking astrology into account.